Not Invincible
by empire14
Summary: "Going to that party alone was a bad idea, Chase knew that. Yet Mr D and Tasha had talked him into it, why didn't he just listen to his gut feeling?" Adam, Bree and Chase may be bionic bet they're not invincible, a rough night out, bullies, grudges and guns teach them that the hard way. (more serious undertone than the series)
1. Home is where the heart is

"_Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten._"_  
- _David Ogden Stiers -

* * *

His hand was trembling. The doorknob had never been such an extreme obstacle. It was hard to grasp and also very frustrating that someone with superior intelligence could not even seem to open a simple door. The key had nearly slipped from his hand three times and now the damn doorknob would not turn around. His slick fingers couldn't find any hold on the smooth surface and the continuous attempts at doing something as mundane as opening his own front door was causing him to lose it.  
After what felt like an eternity, he screamed in frustration and hit the door for emphasis. He knew no one was home but tears were pricking his eyes and the outlet for his rising anger and defeat was needed.  
Breathing was becoming increasingly more difficult and his legs were now positively shaking. He didn't know how long he could keep standing anymore, everything hurt and for once there was no witty retort or clever solution to throw at his torment.

Suddenly a thought made its way into his mind, something so utterly simple he groaned in embarrassment at his slowness. He slammed his hand against the door again and took a breath as deep as he could, which was pretty much just a loud gasp.

"Eddie!"

The strain of everything that had happened and everything that had almost happened was catching up to him and he could feel his voice ready to break, as were the dams holding back the tears.

"Eddie, please open the door!"

It was quiet for a moment or two before a small mechanical voice came out of a little speaker positioned above the door.

"Ooh, are we giving orders again you big, mean Spike-person? Hihihihi."

His hand rested against the door and his body leaned into the sturdy building to try and stop from falling over. The trembling got worse and his vision became blurry and dark at the edges. With his eyes squeezed shut he tried one more time to make a machine feel.

"Please Eddie, I need help. Please!"

Nothing happened for two heartbeats, than the door he had been leaning against shifted and swung inwards. The sudden change was registered too late and he stumbled and fell against the living room couch. He spasmed, tried to get up, lost his grip and screamed as he could feel the wound tearing even further.

He pressed his left hand to his side again and felt the blood seeping between his fingers. He stared out the open front door and saw that his banging against the door had left bloody handprints on the surface of the wood.

'_Tasha will hate that, she just had everything repainted_'

The thought was random and had no real significance but it seemed for the first time in his life, he couldn't really control his thoughts anymore. His side was throbbing and on fire yet the rest of him seemed to be slowly cooling off. For a minute he thought he could hear someone but his mind was slipping and there was no way to be sure.

'_Where the heck did that gun come from_'

The floor he was lying on was hard and his own harsh breaths were starting to hurt his sensitive hearing but thankfully everything seemed to be getting smaller. His side was getting numb and the room was darker every second. His heart pounded less loudly every single beat and the tears were slowing down.

"I have to call Mr Davenport…"

The thought had been so clear that he couldn't help but speak it out loud, or as loud as he could right now. A small _'bang_' indicated that his left hand had fallen to the floor and through half closed eyes he watched in morbid fascination as the grey T-shirt underneath his blue shirt slowly turned dark all across his stomach.

The image turned hazy and dark until everything was black.

Chase couldn't feel anything anymore.

* * *

Disclaimer: for the duration of this story I would like to say that I do NOT own Lab Rats.

Please tell me what you think, I'm here to share my thoughts and improve ;) !


	2. Open Door

"_Our most basic instinct is not for survival but for family. Most of us would give our own life for the survival of a family member, yet we lead our daily life too often as if we take our family for granted._"  
- Paul Pearshall -

* * *

Bree huffed again as she crossed her arms and sunk even farther into the back seat of the car. It was not fair that Chase could go to a party when they all had to go to school on a Saturday evening to talk to principal Perry. Mister _perfect_ had the best grades _ever_ so he didn't have to be humiliated by their hideous principal in front of Mr Davenport and Tasha.

Bree huffed again as she thought of her always-better-than-thou little brother. Sometimes she wished she could turn his genius off, he was much more fun when they had had that chip switch and had no clue. She smiled as she thought of how much fun it would be to stuck Chase in that stupid office with principal crazy and watch him squirm.

She turned her head a little and saw Leo brooding next to her, probably thinking the same things she was, and Adam sitting next to her, probably thinking of pet-pigs or the way principal Perry sometimes resembled one.  
Looking back out the window again she could feel some long forgotten hatred for Chase bubble up and started to think up ways to make his next few days miserable. Maybe she could demolish his clothes at school again, or get Mr Davenport to put a block on the computer so he couldn't watch that stupid show anymore.

They came to a slow stop as Mr Davenport opened the security gates with voice- and retina recognition. He then parked the car in the garage and everyone got out silently. Needless to say, principal Perry hadn't exactly had anything nice to say about any of them.

"Alright you two, straight to your capsules. Leo, you go straight to your room...No detours!"

Mr Davenport looked sternly at the three teenagers in front of him and pointed towards the house. He watched as Adam, Bree and Leo walked up the drive way, sulking the entire way.

"You know honey, they're just grades. No one will care about them in a few years. Especially when those three are saving the world."

Tasha cocked an eyebrow at her husband as he mulled her words over. He sighed and, with Tasha on his arm, started following the three-man brooding squad up to the house. He opened his mouth to say something, closed it, opened it again and eventually just smiled and shook his head. Tasha looked at him curiously and he surrendered.

"Okay. Why don't I take them for a little sparring in the African Jungle tomorrow. I'm sure the simulator will-"

"Mr Davenport!"

Tasha and Davenport looked up and saw Bree waving frantically, telling them to hurry up. They looked at each other than started running towards the three who had stopped some six meters from the front door...that was standing wide open.

"Bid D, I think your security system has some serious faults."

Davenport completely ignored Leo's comment as he raced past and walked into his house to assess the damage. His mind was conjuring up all the images of every piece of priceless technology and his heart clenched at the thought of losing any of it.

The second he crossed the threshold and had a good view of the living room everything stopped. His mind, heart, muscles and even time itself seemed to freeze as the lights automatically turned on.

"Is that...blood?"

Bree's voice came from the doorway and Davenport had no time to try and warn them. The moment Bree's scream reached his ears he seemed to wake up. His heart was pounding in his head and his mind, his awesome, superior, overly-creative mind, had no idea what to do.

A flash and Bree was softly shaking Chase's shoulders.

'_Chase lying on the floor, not moving, blood all over his clothes_'

Leo and Adam followed, the first standing of to the side with trembling fists while the latter knelt next to his brother with the beginnings of tears in his eyes.

"Chase! Please, wake up!?"

Bree's pleas fell on deaf ears as Chase's eyes stayed close.

"Chase!"

Tasha's scream cut right through Davenport as he continued to stare at the red puddle underneath Chase's body. His skin was pale and Davenport couldn't remember the last time Chase had seemed so..._fragile_. With Spike and the rest of his bionics Chase had made sure he could keep up with Bree and Adam. It seemed Chase had done such a good job that Davenport had forgotten that he was the youngest.

Chase was only 15 years old.

Chase was just a kid.

Chase was dying.

'_This isn't supposed to happen_...'

"DONALD! Do something!"

* * *

I would just like to say that I have no real idea of how old Chase actually is. So if anybody knows, please tell me!

As always, please tell me what you think.


	3. From bad to worse

"_One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don't come home at night."  
_- Margaret Mead -

* * *

Tasha felt like she was dreaming, or having a nightmare as it were. Nothing that was happening made any sense and it was as if she could no longer recognise the people around her. Leo was quiet and looked grim and shocked; two expressions she couldn't remember ever really appearing on her son's face. Adam was being gentle and extremely careful as opposed to throwing Chase around like a basketball and then skipping off to help the flies find the open window. Bree was in her arms with a constant stream of tears down her face. The girl who thought everything was cool, exciting and fun was watching with wide heartbroken eyes how her two brothers followed Donald out the door; one was trembling and the other unmoving.

Tasha didn't know what scared her more at the moment; the fact that Adam was most in control of his emotions or the fact that Bree and Leo seemed to be crashing down. She hugged Bree closer to her as her trembling hands and hazy vision told her that they weren't the only ones who were about to crash.

Davenport felt...God, who was he kidding, he had no idea how he felt!

They (Adam, Chase and him) had reached the hospital in under five minutes and thank God Roger had still been there. Adam had carried Chase to the nearest stretcher and Roger had taken one look before ordering nurses and staff around like a seasoned army general. In a matter of seconds Chase had been wheeled through the impenetrable double doors at the end of the hall on his way to surgery.

All of that had been two hours ago.

Davenport suddenly felt the urge to snort, 'impenetrable doors'. Nothing was really impenetrable, especially when you had Adam with you.

Speaking of which...

Davenport stopped mid-stride (he had been pacing pretty much the entire two hours) and looked over at the eldest bionic teenager. Adam still sat in the same position as two hours ago; feet firmly planted on the floor, legs apart, elbows resting on his knees and his head resting in his hands. The normally vibrant, naïve cuddle-bear had been replaced by an actual desperate teenager. Davenport felt the fear from before rise up again. That nagging at the back of his head that kept on saying that without Chase, everything and every_one_ would fall apart. He only had to look at Adam to know how right that stupid voice was. Davenport had been so focused on his awesome creation of the perfect mix between biology and technology that he had forgotten one very crucial part. Bionic siblings are still siblings, and even though Davenport's social skills were probably on par with those of a snail, he had enough knowledge of human behaviour to know that ripping apart a family **always** had disastrous results.

Suddenly a light went on inside Davenport's mind.

He had been so focused on trying to keep Chase from..well..._dying_, that he hadn't really thought about the 'why' all that much.

Why in the world was there a sizeable hole in Chase's abdomen?

* * *

They were currently sitting at the island in the kitchen. After the initial shock had lifted somewhat and Bree had stopped trying to go after Donald and the boys, there had been some sort of silent decision that said they would sit at the island.

And now, here they were. Eddie had stopped trying to make fun of an extremely serious situation after Bree had broken two of his wall screens and had gone thankfully quiet. The only actual sound was the bleeping of the laptop that Bree had gotten from the lab. There were two green dots on the screen; one was Adam and the other Chase.

"_As long as his locator's on, he's okay...he'll be okay"_

Bree's eyes hadn't left the screen since she had said that (nearly an hour ago) and Tasha didn't think she had even moved. The same went for Leo, although he did stretch the occasional limb. A certain gloominess had settled onto the two teenagers and Tasha had become aware of the fact that her eyes would stray to the phone every minute as if willing it to ring.

She found her gaze wandering across the countertop again as her mind was screaming at Donald to call and give them _anything,_ when everything slowed down and the world seemed to shrink in on itself.

Bree screamed, Leo stopped breathing with wide eyes and Tasha's attention was immediately snapped back to the laptop Bree now held in a death grip.

A laptop that now only held one green bleeping dot.

"_CHASE!_"

**...(five hours ago)...**

'_Why on earth did I let them talk me into this'_

It was the only thing Chase could think of as he stared at the house in front of him with apprehension. There were lights flashing inside and loud music came from the open doorway. The place was filled to the brim with hormone-driven teenagers who had probably told their parents they were going to a friend to 'study'. A few of said teenagers were currently lying on the freshly mowed lawn; too hammered to even notice that a rose-bush in no way resembled a pillow.

Chase sighed as he remembered how Adam and Bree had begged Mr Davenport to go to this party and how he was the only one who had gotten permission even though he had told Mr Davenport he had to study. Granted, there probably wasn't all that much the teachers or books could teach him but it made him feel better to study.

.

.

Okay, that was complete bull. There was one reason and one reason only why Chase didn't really want to go to this party and his name was 'Bryan'.

Bryan 'the brute' Hotchkin had taken it upon himself to try and make Chase as miserable as possible. That, of course, wouldn't be much of an issue if Chase was allowed to use his bionics on other people…which he wasn't. And so, whenever there was an opening or opportunity, Bryan took it with open arms and humiliated the fifteen-year-old genius every which way possible.

It was really amazing what teenagers would believe about their fellow classmates sometimes.

Chase sighed as he eyed the (hell)house in front of him and had half a mind to walk away when suddenly someone was forcefully shoving him towards the damn place.

"Come on! You're not getting a good taste of the fun just standing there."

Chase slowly exhaled in slight annoyance as he allowed the other person to push him up the steps and through the doorway; it was just Marcus.

"This is much better!"

Chase flinched at the loud volume of Marcus's voice so close to his ear and swallowed a few times to try and adjust to the fact that there seemed to be a band playing inside his head. Glancing sideways he could see Marcus smiling before pointing towards a door on his left, Chase understood the motion too late and was suddenly left on his own in the middle of drunken strangers with a massive headache blooming.

"Hey! It's 'Chase the dream'!"

No, no way. There was just no way his luck was that bad.

"What happened _buddy_? Did your friends finally figure out you're more of a nightmare!"

Yep, it was that bad. Not even two minutes in this godforsaken house and Bryan himself shows up.

Deciding that he wasn't going to let tonight get spoiled by humiliating comments Chase turned around and made to leave to avoid any further confrontation. Or at least, that was his intention until Bryan started spouted drunken insults that were way below the belt and crossed too many unwritten lines.

"Maybe your mommy kicked you out! Oh, wait, I forgot…you don't have a mom!"

Chase's eyes twitched and his hands turned to fists; letting Spike loose was extremely tempting, he could just tell Mr Davenport it was an unfortunate accident. It's not as if anyone would miss Bryan.

"Not as if you could call that halfassed crazy scientist a dad. Are your brother and sister even really your brother and sister? "

And just like that, Chase was holding Bryan's neck in his hands and pushing him up against a wall, extremely forcefully. No matter how much of a peacemaker Mr Davenport had intended him to be, comments like that coming from a guy like Bryan just made something snap. It was probably a good thing that Chase didn't have any real superstrength or he might have already broken the guy's neck.

"Maybe we should indulge in your family tree and see how you like having your family picked on."

Okay, so his comebacks needed a bit of work. But what he lacked in back-talking, he made up for in genius and strength.

"Okay, so Cha-…whoa."

Oh great, Marcus was back. Now how to explain the fact that he was singlehandedly keeping one of the meanest bullies in school in check. It wasn't as if the guy wasn't suspicious enough as it was with all of Chase's 'Mr Davenport' slip-ups and Marcus's little stroll through the lab. Also, on a side note, Chase finally noticed why Bryan had gone blissfully quiet…his face was turning an interesting shade of dark red/purple.

Chase's eyes widened when he realized he was in the very real process of choking someone and quickly let go. His sudden release caused Bryan to land unceremoniously in a heap on the floor. Turning around Chase saw that everyone in the room seemed to be staring at him with some form of awe and caution in their eyes. He tried to pull of his slightly-awkward-okay smile and was trying to find the words to make everyone stop looking at him when-

'_BANG!'_

No warning signs, no alarm bells, no indication whatsoever that everything had just gone from bad to worse, to completely fucked.

Those not completely hammered yet gave the first screams and the drunken people seemed to just follow the rest. What followed was a stampede of teenagers who all wanted to get out the door first. Chase was pushed and pulled outside where he finally managed to untangle himself from the mass and stumble onto the lawn.

'_No more drunken sleepers…interesting'_

The people in the upper floors of the house responded to the chaos happening on the ground floor and also made an attempt to get out the house. The music somehow kept playing but was nearly drowned out by the screams coming from the…well…_everywhere_!

The pain in his ears was starting to rival the pain blossoming in his side.

…Wait, what?

And as Chase pulled his blue shirt to the side the puzzle pieces seemed to come together as a dark patch formed on his grey shirt.

Bryan. Gun. Shot. Bleeding.

His hand came back red and glistening as a single thought crawled into his mind.

'_Oh shit.'_

* * *

_I'm so incredibly sorry for the late update! My tests have been CRAZY and everything just kinda got shoved out of my mind until further notice. But anyway, I hope this chapter was somewhat okay. I must admitt that I don't really know where I'm going with this...yet. I'm hoping I'll get an idea real soon ;)._

_Please review, all of your wonderful comments make me want to write!_


End file.
